In the United States, both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulate the use of mobile phones on aircraft. Safety concerns exist for both the cell networks and the airplane when traditional terrestrial cell phones are used in flight. Government agencies worry that because cell phones emit radio signals, they can interfere with sensitive aviation electronics like communications equipment or the navigation system. In addition, use of cellular devices may interfere with terrestrial cellular networks because mobile devices at high altitudes may be equidistant from multiple cellular towers of many different cells, thus, creating confusion for call routing. In addition, cellular phones may have to transmit at maximum power to be received, if at all, by the terrestrial cellular towers, thus, increasing the risk of interference with electronic equipment on the aircraft.
Airlines have attempted to provide a solution to onboard phone service with introduction of the Airfone® service in the 1980s which was based on radio technology. The Airfone® service provided a solution to some of the above problems by using a dedicated 800 Mhz air-to-ground frequency for communicating with special terrestrial cellular towers that are placed spatially apart from each other. However, use of the Airfone service has been very limited for several reasons. For example, these services are much more expensive than mobile phone service. In addition, they also provide extremely slow data services at a similarly high price. Additionally, use of the Airfone service does not allow a user to utilize features associated with mobile phones, such as, but not limited to, speed dialing or address book lookup.
Recently, several studies have shown that using wireless devices, such as, but not limited to, cellular phones onboard an aircraft, does not interfere with electronic equipment on the aircraft. In fact, the use of mobile telephones aboard commercial aircraft is gradually being accepted overseas. For instance, many European air carriers have allowed passengers to utilize mobile phones during flight, assuming the mobile device is capable of picking up a cellular signal. Some carriers have installed a picocell system for routing cellular communications to a satellite and then down to a satellite receiver. However, current picocell systems are extremely expensive because they require one or more satellites for routing the cellular communications. In addition, current picocell systems support only one frequency, typically an international roaming frequency, thus, mobile devices onboard an aircraft, if capable, must roam on this frequency for making calls. As a consequence, a consumer is typically charged international roaming rates, such as $2.50 a minute for calls made on their mobile devices while onboard an aircraft.
Therefore, the disclosed embodiments recognize a need for providing an alternative method for providing wireless service, such as, but not limited to, cellular service onboard an aircraft that seeks to overcome one or more the above problems.